2023.10.26 Big Ole Public Update! (Patreon)

Quick note on attached video: 1000 musicians play Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters - I come back to this video as a reminder of how AWESOME we are when we come together. To me, this is what life is all about. Having fun, being together and enjoying the world we have.

Ok, on to the update!

Hello and welcome back to a long update from your old friend, Ready Art.

This goes out to all my friends and fans on Patreon as well as the people following me here. This is a quick update as we near the end of the year and what you can expect in the coming months.

General Movie News

I’ve covered this before but the biggest news is I’ve been adding a lot more voiceovers to the movies as well as increasing the resolution of the movies being made. This has been implemented in the last couple of months. Movie subscribers will notice a dramatic increase in resolution. Personally, I love the new look and it makes full-screen watching a lot more fun. Additionally, there’s been a lot of new voice acting with the ladies of the Growth Lab universe. Everyone reading this can check out the previews posted on my social media or here on Patreon for samples.

Remastering Old Movies?

I was asked if I would think about re-mastering the older movies at a higher resolution --- that is possible. Things like that though really depend on interest and time. If there was a lot of interest I would seriously consider it. Generally speaking, the time investment to do something like that is pretty big and it wouldn’t be a small project. I mention it because it is doable (within some level of reason) if you were wondering.

Comics! Wow, where to start?

For me personally, the biggest news this year is catching up with the massive backlog of comics I’ve had last 10 years. Very long story short, I normally have 500 to 1000 pages of comic art waiting in the wings to be lettered, inked and compiled into a book. That buffer has stayed the same for about 12 years now. It’s a result of me drawing faster than I can put out books. The lettering and compiling was slowing me down. Well, thanks to your support I’ve been able to catch up!

My backlog is gone and we are now moving into full color comics. The new color comics are basically 22 pages of full-color art and I’m working to produce those at the highest level I can. The production rate seems to be leveling out at roughly 6 comics year. I would love to say I can do more but I can’t commit to something like that right now. I also can’t specify an exact schedule for the color comic releases. The main thing holding me back is my dedication to not overpromising. I don’t feel good about setting dates and missing them. I aim to be as honest and straight with you as I possibly can. That said, my goal is always to bring you my best and most awesome artwork.

Overall goals for the Patreon and beyond

I also had another question about releasing stuff to the public. I think everybody reading this knows I go to great lengths to make sure as many people can see my art as possible. I’ve done this for over 30 years and I made it a point to release my art to the public at one point or another.

With the creation the Patreon I had to work for a couple years to figure out the best ways to get my art to patrons and create value for their support. By no means am I diminishing the importance of people who cannot or don’t want to support me monetarily. Those friends and fans are very important to me and I do everything I can to make sure they see my art as soon as reasonable/possible. Still, I want to make sure I’m establishing value for the people throwing down their hard-earned ducats.

ROUGH release schedule to the public

Now that the Patreon is been running for a while I think I can establish a general plan for release

• Movies made on the Patreon will go public between 6 months and one year after Patreon release
• Previews for movies will be released concurrently or soon after release on the Patreon
• New comics will be released first on the Patreon and then released publicly within 6 months to a year
• Comic previews will be released concurrently or soon after release on the Patreon

There are quite a few exclusive things to the Patreon don’t happen anywhere else.

• Contests
• User polls
• Suggestions from users and more
• All these things only happen here on the Patreon as I do not take suggestions or requests anywhere else.

Commissions

I  have not taken on new commissions in a while. I get asked about commissions and my answer at this point is the Patreon is my for soul focus for new art and animation. If I ever decide open up commissions anytime soon I will definitely make an announcement here and on my public social sites.

Your input is always welcome

I love hearing from you. My messages on Patreon are open to anyone reading this. If you really want to talk with me directly the very best way is to email. I know that may not be everybody’s cup of tea. I realize a lot of you would rather DM on Twitter, Discord, deviantArt or other places. I used to have all those wide open. I would get so many messages across so many sites it became difficult to keep up with conversations. Many times I would get overlap from the same person messaging me at different places. That’s why I recommend to each and everyone of you if you really want to talk with me email me at granitelog(at)hotmail(dot)com

What would you like to see?

I’ve spoken about this many many times. I look to do a crossover between what I like to draw and what you want to see. Wherever things fall is where I want to be hitting. I need your input for that.

Patreon is the place to do it. Beyond that, commenting on my social sites is another way. Liking my posts here or anywhere helps me understand what you’re enjoying. Basically, any constructive feedback is welcome. I’m not looking for you to blow smoke up my butt but I do request civil conversation at all times. I’m not a hot topic type of person and anyone who’s been on my Discord knows that. It’s about the art and fun conversations around that. There are plenty of other social sites where you can do topic of the day commentary.

All right, back to work for me and thank you for your time. Look for some new announcements coming your way and in the meantime stay awesome!

-Ready